NASA will launch the OSIRIS-REx (Origins-Spectral Interpretation-Resource Identification-Security-Regolith Explorer) probe to Bennu in 2016 to retrieve samples that could better explain our solar system's formation and how life began. OSIRIS-REx will be the first United States mission to carry samples from an asteroid back to Earth.

The name is the winning entry in an international student contest. Michael Puzio, a nine-year-old in North Carolina, suggested the name because he imagined the Touch-and-Go Sample Mechanism (TAGSAM) arm and solar panels on OSIRIS-REx look like the like neck and wings in drawings of Bennu, which Egyptians usually depicted as a gray heron.

Michael is the son of cS member Larry Puzio (cS: lspooz)!

Congratulations Michael and Larry! Very nice to have an asteroid namer among our extended community!

lspoozMember

Posts: 290From: Greensboro, NC USARegistered: Aug 2012

posted 05-02-2013 09:11 AM
And thanks to collectSPACE, where I first found the link to NASA and the Planetary Society's contest back on Labor Day.

lspoozMember

Posts: 290From: Greensboro, NC USARegistered: Aug 2012

posted 08-17-2016 12:14 AM
We're looking forward to the Sept. 8 launch of the OSIRIS-REx mission, and tomorrow NASA TV will feature the traditional 'L-14' press briefing (Dr. Dante Lauretta and other project leaders will present to the media and field questions).

posted 09-07-2016 10:45 AM
Photos from this morning's rollout of the Atlas V with OSIRIS-REx to Launch Complex 41 at Cape Canaveral Air Force Station:

ejectrMember

Posts: 1611From: Spring Hill, FLRegistered: Mar 2002

posted 09-10-2016 06:34 PM
I saw the launch from as far as one can go on Playalinda Beach, about 5 miles from the launch.

What a sight to see. And the shuttle pads are right next to you. What a place to witness a shuttle launch or next a SpaceX launch.

Larry McGlynnMember

Posts: 977From: Boston, MARegistered: Jul 2003

posted 09-10-2016 07:42 PM
I watched it from the Causeway. It was about 3 miles across the water from us. It was a beautiful launch that was highlighted by the setting Sun.

lspoozMember

Posts: 290From: Greensboro, NC USARegistered: Aug 2012

posted 09-10-2016 10:18 PM
Our family watched from the Operations Support Building-II about 3 miles away (first launch ever) and I was stunned at the feel of the noise and the brightness of the flame, smaller and brighter than the sun and most reminiscent of a welding torch.

(Photo credit: NASA)

The Planetary Society hosts and the NASA support personnel made the entire launch day just incredible. With the 7:05 p.m. launch the setting sun made for an interesting effect:

(Photo credit: Arizona Central)

WehaveliftoffMember

Posts: 1248From: Registered: Aug 2001

posted 11-15-2016 09:03 AM
In celebration of the successful launch of the University of Arizona's third mission into space (after Juno and New Horizons), members of the team were invited onto the field.